Manitowish Waters — When Chicago gangster George "Baby Face" Nelson fled Little Bohemia Lodge after the notorious 1934 shootout and botched raid by FBI agents, he escaped through a marsh to a cottage owned by a man named Ollie Catfish.

There, local lore has it, the diminutive Nelson spent the night sleeping with his gun under his pillow. Then he persuaded Catfish to exchange clothes with him. He also got Catfish to direct him to a nearby depot where he caught a train back to the Windy City.

Today, travelers can stay in that cabin at Dillman's Bay Resort. Back in the late 1930s, the Dillman family bought it, put it on skids in the middle of winter and pulled it from Catfish Point over to Dillman Point and dragged it up to a bluff where it now sits overlooking White Sand Lake. Fisherman's Cabin, as it's known, still retains some of its original chinked logs. It has two bedrooms, two baths, sleeps five and rents for $260 a night through Aug. 16. From Aug. 17 to Oct. 13, the rate drops to $205 a night.

Little Bohemia no longer offers lodging, but its restaurant draws diners from around the country and abroad because of its tasty food and place in gangster lore. The owners — the Wanatkas and now the Johns family — have kept a shrine of sorts in one of the former hotel rooms that's filled with mobster memorabilia, including clothing, toiletries and other items left by Nelson and the even more famous John Dillinger.

The lodge also still has windows with bullet holes in them from the gunbattle that unfolded 80 years ago.

Little Bohemia gained renewed fame during the summer of 2008 when some scenes from the movie "Public Enemies " about the final years of Dillinger's life were shot on location. The film starred Johnny Depp.

Dan Johns, whose parents run Little Bohemia, said interest in the gangster legend hasn't subsided much over the past six years.

"There is still a lot of excitement about the lodge," said Johns. "I'd say the majority of the people who come here know something about its history. They are interested in seeing the bullets holes, the old newspapers, and the items the bank robbers left behind — as well as have a meal."

At the restaurant, visitors can dine on dishes with gangster-influenced names. For breakfast, there's Eggs Dillinger, a Gangster Getaway sandwich or Shoot 'Em Up pancakes. For lunch, try the Dillinger Dip or the Sweet Lake in Red, a turkey sandwich named for Dillinger's red-haired girlfriend – not the "woman in red" who betrayed him to the FBI. Her tip led to his shooting death by lawmen in front of the Biograph Theater on Chicago's Lincoln Ave.

Not long before he was killed in July 1934, the FBI had declared Dillinger the nation's Public Enemy No. 1.

The Chicago Tribune wrote this: "At the time of his death, handsome, daring bank robber John Herbert Dillinger was as famous as anyone in America. In little more than a year, Dillinger had robbed several banks, escaped from two jails, eluded police traps and killed at least one police officer."

Johns said former Little Bohemia owner Emil Wanatka Sr. realized immediately after the shootout that "something worthy of preserving had happened at the lodge."

Johns said visitors ask "a mix of questions about the property as well as where different events occurred. Many ask about the movie production, too.

"I thought they did a pretty good job of documenting the excitement that surrounded the events. And the resulting formation of the FBI," he added, regarding the movie.

Johns heard plenty about the shootout while growing up from Emil Wanatka Jr., who owned Little Bohemia for many years. In the days before the gunbattle, 8-year-old Emil played catch with one of the men staying at the lodge. He didn't like it when the man — whom he later learned was Baby Face Nelson — threw the ball at him as hard as he could.

"Emil liked talking about that. He said he caught the ball, but it stung his hand pretty bad," explained Johns, who said Wanatka described Nelson as standoffish. His description of Dillinger, however, was that he seemed friendly and "very upright."

Frozen in time

Johns said Little Bohemia hasn't changed much since 1934.

"It's still the same great restaurant and historical site as it was back then. And we've preserved the historical aspects," he said. "It's a busier tourist area now because back then it was more difficult to reach us."

He said Chicagoland gangsters — including Al Capone — came up to the North Woods for many of the same reasons people do today. But for the mobsters, "getting away" had a little extra meaning.

He said Dillinger and his cronies were fairly low key when they stayed at Little Bohemia, though they did a lot of target practice.

"I don't think they were able to escape who they were," he said. "They were still gangsters. But they treated people here very well, as if they were friends."

So why did the Wanatkas rat them out to the Feds?

Johns theorizes that as the gangsters' presence become more known, the Wanatkas' concern for people's safety trumped the desire to make money from the mobsters and their molls.

"We like to say Dillinger only left because he had to," Johns quipped.

And while all the gangsters escaped, two locals who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time were gunned down by the Feds. Later, an FBI man was killed by the fast-balling Baby Face Nelson. He got his just rewards when the G-men caught up with him in November 1934 in Barrington, Ill., outside Chicago.